DR. BAWUMIAH DESCRIBES HIS NOMINATION AS A WIN FOR NPP

The newly elected running mate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumiah to the NPP flag bearer, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, has described his selection as a victory for the NPP Party. According him even though he is not known on political platforms, he has been active at the apex of the economic platform and has contributed to the economic to the achievement of the NPP under the leadership under the leadership of His Excellency President J.A Kufour.

The entrance of the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, into the politics of the New Patriotic Party has cultch a new OBAWUMANIA!!!! Campaign slogan which is catching up slowly with the NPP activities and supporters.

Acknowledging the fact that he is new in partisan politics of Ghana, Dr. Bawumiah pointed out that he has been active at the apex of the economic platform and feel proud to have contributed to the economic achievements of the NPP UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF His Excellency President J.A Kufour.
Among some of Dr. Bawumiah achievements are as follows:

• He is involved in putting together and implementing the framework that guide monetary policy, as well as the workings of the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of Ghana.

• Played a major part in the banking sector reforms that have increase the number of banks and bank branches throughout the country, resulting to a major increase in the availability of credit to Ghanaian businesses and individuals.

• Led the Bank of Ghana’s technical negotiation team, and have been a part of the Government team that negotiated with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund since 2001 through HIPC and the poverty Reduction Growth Facility.

• Served as a member of the Government technical negotiating team on HIPC, Paris Club and HIPC Completion Point Negotiations. Ghana completed the HIPC process successfully with significant debt relief of close to 4Billion USD.

• Served as a member of the Government team negotiated the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Compact with the US Government and was responsible for the drafting the financial sector component of the MCA Compact. The MCA Compact yielded financing for 547 million USD worth projects.

• He also served as a member of the Government Technical Team on the Deregulation of the Petroleum Sector. We achieved a successful deregulation, which has saved Government some $700 million over the last three years.

• He was the Chairman of the Capital Market Committee, responsible for the strategy for accessing the international capital market with a debut bond issue of US$750 million. which was four times oversubscribed. The bond proceeds have been critical in undertaking investment in the energy sector and have also been earmarked for the Kumasi-Accra Dual Carriageway as well as the Western Railway Line.


• He was part of the team that designed and implemented the successful redenomination of the cedi which has been hailed globally. Through this process, the cedi has been considerably strengthened as Ghanaian has found renewed confidence in their currency.


• Played a key role in the design and implementation of the e-zwich common platform for all banks saving and loan companies and rural banks. This common platform is modernizing the country’s payment system.

Dr. Mahamadu Bawumiah said the country is at the brink of a historic economic breakthrough “Divine providence and sterling leadership have positioned the NPP as the party you can trust to deliver this prosperity to every individual, home and community in Ghana” Noting that in order to achieve this, first the NPP must win the election in December.

There is no underhand dealing in GT sale- Presidency

The Office of the President has stated that there has not been any underhand dealing in the sale of Ghana Telecom (GT) to the strategic investor, Vodafone, and that the Government has been very open and transparent.

At a press briefing at the castle Osu, the Presidential Press Secretary Mr. Andrew Awuni emphatically stated tha "The Government has never and will never short-change Ghanaians.He defended the GT/Vodafone deal as the best for the viability, security and the future of Ghana Telecom and it's over 4000 employees and their families.

He noted the decline in both the net value and enterprise value of GT over the years, and said the Company needed to be saved and that people should not pretend that all was well with the company.

Mr Awuni took a swipe at the reported threat by the leader of the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor John Evans Atta Mills, to reverse the sale if elected to power and make those found "culpable of short-changing Ghanaians face the full rigours of the law."

He said what was ironic was that this same person as then Vice President and leader of the Economic Management Team of the NDC Government, sold out hundreds of State Owned Enterprises including the Ghana Telecom under bizarre circumstances.

The Press Secretary continued; "Indeed if the NPP Government had not bought out Telecom Malaysia at their behest in 2002, there would not be a Ghana Telecom to privatize today."

Mr Awuni was emphatic that the Government had followed all the laid down procedures for divestiture and violated none.

Revision of the voters' register records high turn out

The Revision of the Voters register today enters its fifth day of operations. The exercise which is been conducted by the Electoral Commission nationwide seeks to capture mainly the youth who have attained the voting age of 18 years and above, and people who could not register during the last exercise in 2006.

Although the exercise is been conducted under strict supervision of the Ghana Police Service, some registering centers were marked with violence over the weekend thus disrupting the smooth and peaceful running of the exercise.

During a visit by VNN to some of the centers this morning, some of the center has run shorts of registering materials, others centers have their camera not functioning at all, whiles some centers also, the personnel of the Electoral Commission intentionally slows down the registration process to ascertain the eligibility of potential voters.

Interestingly in the light of all this abnormalities, the youth who are the main targets of this years exercise have remained resolute and calm.

Below are pix from the Ablekumah Central Constituency : -

Minister of Communication hijacked on the sale of Ghana Telecom

A group of Ghanaian journalists have taken the communication minister Dr. Aggrey Ntim to task, over the sale of state-owned Ghana Telecom to British private telecommunication operator, Vodafone. At a meet-the-press series in Accra, the journalists slammed the minister over government’s intention to offload 70% shares in the national asset to a foreign private company at a cost of US$900 million.

Dr. Aggrey Ntim in his speech earlier emphasized government’s determination to sell the national asset so as to recapitalize and ensure enhanced technology to provide quality service to Ghanaians. But journalists were emotionally charged with such an explanation and bombarded him with tough questions.

Their questions hinged around security of Ghanaians if strategic asset like Ghana Telecom was sold to foreigners, while others wanted to know why the government was interested in selling almost every national asset.

Meanwhile parliament was yet to ratify the sale agreement while political parties have warned government to refrain from selling Ghana Telecom.The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government has attempted to sell Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), all national assets but backed out after intense pressure from civil society organisations.

BANK OF GHANA ISSUES ADDITIONAL KYC GUIDELINES

Following the introduction of the e-zwich common platform and biometric smartcard, and the passage of Ghana’s Anti-Money Laundering and the Credit Reporting Acts, the Bank of Ghana has issued additional Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines to banks and savings and loans companies.

With effect from September 1, 2008, all new personal customers of banks and savings and loan companies must be issued with an e-zwich smartcard as part of the KYC process. Also, e-zwich smartcards must be issued to all existing personal customers by December 31st, 2008 as part of KYC procedures.

Furthermore, to make it easier for the unbanked to open bank accounts, under the new guidelines account opening procedures for people who engage in low value transactions (i.e. below GH¢ 10,000) no longer require proof of residence such as a utility bills. While such proof is desirable, it is no longer obligatory unless where the bank considers otherwise. In any case these customers should be issued with e-zwich smartcards.

In addition to all the other benefits of using the e-zwich smartcard, these measures will eliminate identity fraud in the banking system because the fingerprints of individual customers on the e-zwich smartcard are unique.

NANA CAMPAIGN MANAGER INTERACTS WITH JOURNALIST

The Chairman f the Campaign team of NPP Flagbearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, Jake Obetsebi Otanka Lamptey on Republic Day took time off his busy schedule to to interact with journalists in Accra. Mr Obetsebi Lamptey who is well known for his cmpetence as an astute politician in the politics of Ghana thrilled media men and women with facts about the current developments within the New Partroitic Party with regards to their primaries, campaign strategies, in-house tribal fighting and other pressing issues that the journalist would like to have first hand information.

With him at the NPP CLUB HOUSE during the interaction were some members of the campaign team of Nana Akuffo Addo including Mr. Kwabena Agyapong and others.

Below are pix from the venue ground.

Road Map On ICT in West Africa Conference underway in Ghana

A two-day West Africa ICT Road Map to Opportunities Conference, is underway in Accra to discuss regional market creation and cross border co-operation on wireless technologies. The conference on the theme: "West Africa ICT Road Map to Opportunities," which attracted participants from West Africa and other global partners would examine the application of ICT in the areas of e-commerce and e-Government within the Sub-Region. Government, US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and the US Department of State, organised the conference, which was opened by Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama.

Vice President Mahama observed that the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's), in West Africa, would be a mirage if ICT do not play an integral part. He said the MDG's are time-bound and there were challenges associated with the objectives, hence the need for stakeholders in ICT in the Sub-Region to shy away from mere rhetoric's and be proactive to achieve results. "The quest for rapid socio-economic development in our part of the world does not allow us the luxury of conference talk with little action."Vice President Mahama said the promotion of the Information Society would require substantial investments in terms of financial, technological and human resources. He noted that although West Africa possesses enormous investment potential for the deployment of ICT for development, there is minimal cross-border ICT infrastructure that would provide the expected impact for development."In fact, we are still confronted with the phenomenon of passing our telephone and Internet traffic through the developed countries of Europe and America to the West African Sub-Region." Vice President Mahama called for global assistance to enable Ghana to pursue the Digital Freedom Initiative to facilitate services such as Internet connectivity.He said Ghana and other West Africa countries lacked financial resources to improve on problems like ICT capacity building programmes and specialised training for policy makers and regulators, connectivity for ICT services and applications in remote areas. Dr. Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, Minister of Communications expressed the need for the expansion of access to ICT in West Africa in order to facilitate economic competitiveness.Mr. David Gross, US Co-ordinator for ICT Policy, noted that, the US had exceeded its financial commitment to Africa and also shown the way to boost the economic growth of the Continent. Dr. Hamadoun Toure, Secretary General of International Telecommunication Union said Africa was leading the way in embracing ICT which he described as positive news that deviated from the negative news of wars and conflicts.He expressed the need for concerted efforts to confront cyber crime, which is undermining public confidence in ICT. Ms. Leocadia Zak, Deputy Director of USTDA said her outfit had committed 745,000 dollars in support of ICT projects in Liberia and Niger.The first grant will fund an assessment for the Liberian Telecommunications Corporation for the technical and financial viability of the proposed metropolitan fibre optic ring around Liberia. The second grant will support a separate study for Seaquest Info Tel of Niger on the National ICT backbone. 09 July 08
Source:GNA